The Gambler
by intern.at.german.chapterhouse
Summary: Bobby is just trying to enjoy being dead and in Heaven. Of course that doesn't work out.


**One of my favourite characters is Booby and this fic is for him, even though it's a lot suckier than he deserves.**

The fire was cracking, _The Gambler_ was playing, he had a bottle of his favourite Whisky next to him and _sTori telling_ in his hands. Robert Steven Singer was in Heaven.  
Literally.  
It had been a while since he had died. It had been a while since Sam had asked for his help. It had been a while since the Angels had punished him for it. It had been a while. He had lost count on how many bottles of whisky he drank, how often he had read his book. The bottle was always full, re-reading the book was always as exciting as reading it the first time had been, the fire never went out and he never got bored of his favourite song playing in the background.  
Everything was just fine. It was calm, peaceful. Something he had never had in life. A hunter's life never was as relaxing as this eternal Sunday afternoon.  
But apparently not even eternal peace lass forever for a hunter.  
Suddenly the radio stopped playing music and started giving off an annoying screech instead. It immediately reminded him of when Sam had contacted him and he was about to curse the stupid Idjit- couldn't these boys ever take care of something themselves and just let an old man have some peace and quiet for God's sake?- when he heard a voice he never thought he'd hear again.  
"Bobby. Hey, Bobby? You hearin' me?"  
"Ash?" Bobby put his book down on the table and set his glass on top.  
"Ha! It worked!" Ash's joyous shout would have almost annoyed Bobby hadn't it been for the long time he hadn't heard from his old Hunter friend.  
"Yeah, it did. Now, what do you want?"  
"Hey, Bobby, don't get all grumpy! Just thought, maybe you'd wanna hang out? 'm working on gettin' the old crew back together, ya know? Wanna come over?"  
It wasn't as if Bobby really had a choice. He was practically pulled out of his chair and dragged through his door. But instead of ending up in the scrap yard in front of his house, he found himself in a restaurant. He recognized the _Roadhouse_ before he recognized the two men that had dragged him there.  
"Rufus? Ash?"  
"Bobby!" His old friend shouted at him and then pulled him into a hug. Ash wouldn't let him get away with a big bear hug either.  
Only then did he realize that the three of them were by far not the only ones in the _Roadhouse_.  
Ellen smiled and pulled him into a hug too, with Jo standing behind her, looking a little lost but smiling at him too.  
There were some other hunters he knew, ages before he died. Marcus and Joe, Anne and Rupert. The tables were all pretty much full, there had to bet at least fifty hunters in here.  
"Like I said, the old gang, back together!" Ash jumped onto the counter, threw his hair, that had fallen in his face, back, and yelled once for everybody to shut up.  
The talking and mumbling that had filled the room died down and Ash started talking.  
"Okay, now that we've got everybody here, I'll tell you why I brought you here. I've been spying on the winged rats that run this place-", Bobby heard people booing and whistling, "- and we all know that they shut Heaven down and won't help downstairs, 'cause they're scared. But they still talk about what's going on down there. And it's the end."  
Total and complete silence engulfed the hunters, which is an accomplishment, considering how many of them there were and that hunters aren't exactly the quietest of people.  
"The Darkness, Amara, God's sister, is trying to destroy... Well, everything. And I know that we can't do much from up here, but we can at least watch, how the younger generations of hunters are trying to save the world. We, each and everyone of us, have worked so hard on keepin' this world safe, so I thought you guys might a least want to have a front row seat to the Apocalypse 2.0. Plus, the beer here's pretty good."  
The hunters reluctantly cheered to Ash's lame joke.  
Bobby hadn't known how bad it really was. Was it really the second take on the apocalypse? He'd been there for the first one, he'd even gotten killed trying to stop it. Had that been for nothing?  
Ash jumped down from the counter and pointed a remote control on the flat screen over the bar- a new instalment it seemed, since it hadn't been there when Bobby last visited the _Roadhouse_.  
The screen went from black to a scene Bobby first had trouble to understand. It was a graveyard they saw. Between the rows of tomb stones there stood a small group of people. Two men stood in front of a grave, talking to each other.  
"Dean, you know you don't have to do this." Bobby's heart dropped when he finally understood who he was seeing. He dropped onto the chair behind him and listened to the older Winchester's response.  
"Of course I do." Where those Idjits tryin' to kill him? Again?!  
When Dean turned away from Sam after hugging him for the last time, Ash appeared in front of Bobby and gave him a bottle of beer. Bobby thanked him ad murmured "I might need something stronger than that to watch this..." Ellen raised her bottle so Bobby clanked his bottle against the ones the Harvelle women were holding up.  
And then Dean was gone.  
The group on the graveyard now consisted of Sam, Castiel, the red haired witch Rowena, her son the King of Hell, and God himself.  
Suddenly the screen went to white noise and gave off an awful screeching noise.  
"Ash, what the hell is going on?" An old hunter yelled from the back of the bar.  
"I'm trying to get a look on Dean and the Darkness but it won't let me!"  
Ash tried for several minutes while the hunters yelled at him, everyone was convinced they knew better than the others. Bobby just kept drinking.  
They'd done it before. Saved the world, that is. Maybe, maybe the boys he adopted decades ago really were able to handle this alone. Still, he wished he could be down there, in the mud, helping them. Instead he sat in an old bar, with stinking shouting hunters, drinking beer and watching the apocalypse on TV.  
After a while Ash gave up on Dean and instead got the screen to show the people the older brother had left behind.  
The Impala pulled up to an old bar, not that different from the one they were sitting in, called _The Lazy Shag.  
_ When some preachers walked by Sam and his allies, carrying a sign saying "The end is near" laughter arose in the _Roadhouse_.  
Crowley opened up the bar and everyone on screen sat down. In front of the screen some still complained about being stuck with the _boring Winchester_ as they said.  
Bobby had enough. "Those boys have saved the world once. Together. They understand something, none of you ever got: to win a fight, sometime you gotta work together. They're a team, so let's just support the only sorry idiots down there that are still fighting for us, alright?"  
Everyone in the _Roadhouse_ knew who Bobby was, he knew that. And he was pretty sure they all knew he was part of the team that had prevented the first apocalypse, even though he himself thought his part in it wasn't exactly big. But still, everyone shut up and Ellen gave him a nod.  
Bobby drank three bottles of beer within minutes but didn't feel a thing. "Balls!" he whispered to himself. Damn Heaven and the fact that getting drunk is impossible there.  
Not much happened on screen, so off screen no one really said anything. Until God suddenly disappeared which sent a wave of "Ah!"s through the hunters' ranks. Bobby wasn't surprised. This was about God's fight with Amara, after all. Of course she'd want him with her.  
For another goof five minutes nothing happened.  
And then, the sun regained it's shine. The windows of _The Lazy Shag_ lit up, and, in response, so did the ones in the _Roadhouse_.  
They did it. He almost smiled. Until he remember what that meant for Dean.  
One of his two boys was gone.  
He turned away from the others, looked to the wall and saw- her.  
A woman, wearing a white nightgown. Her blonde her fell in waves onto her shoulders and he recognized her immediately. He'd never seen her before, only pictures and relatives, but that was enough to be certain.  
Mary Winchester.  
She was right there.  
And then she wasn't.  
She was just gone.  
"Ash!" Bobby yelled and yelled and yelled. "ASH!" Each of his shouts went unheard, the cheers in the _Roadhouse_ were too loud. The hunters were celebrating the Winchesters' victory, since it practically felt like theirs.  
It took Bobby a while to get the weird little guy's attention. "Ash! Show Dean again!"  
"What?" Ash seemed to not have understood Bobby's shouts over the crowd's celebrating noise.  
"Where's Dean? Can you look for him?"  
"Dean?"  
"Yes, you Idjit!"  
Ash pointed the remote at the TV and turned it back on. It was still set on showing Sam and his company, until Ash pushed some buttons.  
A park. A bench. Bushes.  
And then, Dean, on the ground.  
Bobby yelled of joy. He was alive. Dean lived.  
But... Was he pinned to the floor? By a... a bare foot?  
The bare foot of a woman dressed in a white night gown.  
Mary Winchester.  
Bobby couldn't believe it. She was back? He knew that was a thing, he'd seen Sam and Dean come back from the dead, he'd even done it himself once.  
But Mary? She'd died more than thirty years ago. And now she was back?  
Ellen grabbed his arm and asked, "Is that Mary?"  
Before he could even nod Jo grabbed his other arm and pointed somewhere behind him. "Isn't that...?"  
Bobby turned around.  
He looked younger. Maybe like he was thirty again. The war had already scarred him, but he was yet untouched by the cruelty of the Supernatural.  
John Winchester.  
"Bobby."  
"John?"  
"My boys did it again, huh?"  
Neither Bobby nor the Harvelles answered.  
"Saved the world I mean." John came closer and stood in front of them.  
"Yeah, no thanks to you." Jo looked shocked and Ellen lightly hit Bobby.  
But even though it had been his intention, John didn't seem hurt by Bobby's comment.  
"I know," John's head wasn't held high the way it had been his whole live, his entire posture slumped.  
"I know. That's why I didn't go. I don't deserve it and they don't need me. They... They need Mary. I spent decades in hell, I relived every bad thing I did to my sons, or let happen to them. That's why I know that I don't deserve to be down there again. They grew up. Maybe you helped a little, Bobby, but now they can take care of themselves on their own, right?"  
Bobby nodded. "I guess. Balls, they do grow up way too fast, don't they?"  
Ellen laughed, Jo joined in quickly and even the two men couldn't help but chuckle a it.  
Sam and Dean might only be John's kids, but each of the four people in Heaven watching the TV knew, they were family.

The _Roadhouse_ was practically deserted by the time the four of them plus Ash settled down at one table with beer, pretzels and some poker cards, the TV playing in the background, on mute, simply showing Dean talking to Mary. They just needed to make sure that he was okay. They checked in on Sam every now and then, who seemed to be grieving while he drove himself and the angel Castiel back to the bunker. They knew, as soon as Dean got back to Lebanon, Kansas, with Mary, Sam would be better too, so for now they were playing poker.  
He might have been in Heaven for quite some time, enjoying his peace and quiet, but this... This was what Paradise must be like. Bobby started humming while John dealt them some cards. " _You've got to know, when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em..._ "


End file.
